ISTANBUL:
Russia and Ukraine began a fresh round of talks in Istanbul on Wednesday but the Kremlin played down any expectations of a breakthrough after three and a half years of war.
“Our aim is to end this bloody war, which has a very high cost, as soon as possible,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said as he opened a meeting between the two delegations.
“The ultimate goal is a ceasefire that will pave the way for peace,” Fidan said.
The two sides previously met in the Turkish city in May and June, but managed to agree only on exchanges of prisoners and soldiers’ bodies.
US President Donald Trump last week gave Russia 50 days to end the war or face sanctions, but the Kremlin has not indicated it is willing to compromise.
“No one expects an easy road. It will be very difficult,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about his expectations for the talks.
Ukraine said it hoped the two countries would discuss the release of prisoners and lay the ground for a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“Everything will depend on whether Russia stops speaking in ultimatums and takes a constructive position,” a source in the Ukrainian delegation told AFP.
“This will determine whether results can be achieved at this meeting.”
But Moscow has said a lot of work is needed before even discussions can take place about possible talks between Putin and Zelensky, who last met in 2019.
The two sides have radically different positions for ending the conflict.
Russia has called on Ukraine to effectively retreat from the four Ukrainian regions Moscow claims to have annexed in September 2022, a demand Kyiv has called unacceptable.
Ukraine has ruled out any negotiations on territory until after a ceasefire and says it will never recognise Russia’s claims over occupied territory — including Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022, has ravaged swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, killing tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
Ukraine said former defence minister Rustem Umerov, who currently serves as security council secretary, would head its delegation.
The Kremlin said it would send political scientist Vladimir Medinsky to lead its negotiating team.
Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation in the two previous rounds of negotiation, is not seen as a powerful decision maker. Ukraine has labelled him a puppet.
At the last talks on May 16 and June 2, the two sides agreed to large-scale prisoner exchanges.
They also exchanged their draft terms for ending the conflict, which the Kremlin said were “diametrically opposed”.
